Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate’s Producer On Design And Fan Feedback

In preparation for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Siliconera recently had the opportunity to get in touch with Monster Hunter series producer, Ryozo Tsujimoto, and ask him a few questions regarding the series.

In our short interview, Tsujimoto talks about popular weapons, how the development team comes up with monster designs, and how Capcom gauge fan feedback.

Monster Hunter began in 2004, and we’ve seen several games in the series since. What would you say the defining trait of each game is?

Ryozo Tsujimoto, series producer: The Monster Hunter series can roughly be divided into experiences for consoles and portable machines. The console experiences focused on utilizing online Internet capabilities in order for users to interact and cooperate.

The portable experiences were designed for players to be able to enjoy the game without the need for internet connections, as they are able to carry the game around with them and enjoy the co-op action on the go. Titles that have the “G” moniker appended to them signify upgraded versions of previous entries to the series.

Since Monster Hunter is such a community-driven game, what kind of feedback do you collect from players for deciding on future developments for the series?

Various Monster Hunter-related events take place in Japan throughout the year, and members of the development staff make it a point to attend as many as they can in person. From attending these kinds of user events, we are able to speak to players directly and find out their honest opinions about the titles. Also, we often receive messages from overseas users that we use as reference as well.

Over the years, how has the Monster Hunter community changed, as more and more people have joined in? For example, have you seen players favouring certain weapons more over the years, and how does this influence the new weapons you come up with?

In terms of weapons, the Long Sword and the Great Sword are among the most popular armaments. The Dual Blades have always been a popular weapon for female gamers, and this has not changed in the past few years. One of the charms of the Dual Blades is that there is less of a focus on defending, and more on the beautiful attacks that can be performed, which is why female gamers might find it more appealing.

With regards to weapon and armor design, we always strive for the greatest amount of variation possible. We realize that each player has their own preferences when it comes to these kinds of choices, so be it cool, cute, or comical; we try to put in as much choice as possible for users to enjoy.

Do you have any particular process you follow while coming up with ideas for new monsters and how they’ll behave in the game?

There are different processes we go through when it comes to monster creation. When creating the main monster for a new title, the design, concept and specifications are decided on its unique traits, in addition to the field environment that we designate the monster to appear in.

We also just let our imaginations run wild sometimes! One example is the monster named Jhen Mohran; we came up with the idea for this monster based off an image illustration that showed a gigantic monster fighting with a character riding a sand boat. We were instantly hooked by the imagery and did our absolute best to implement that kind of action into the game to match it.

So from a game design perspective, the two main ways we create the monsters in the game are through exciting designs and situations.

When you developed the original Monster Hunter Tri, which is the basis for 3 Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, what did you hope to achieve that you hadn’t been able to in the past?

There have been a number of entries into the Monster Hunter series up until now, and we are always thinking of ways to evolve the gameplay with each new title. For instance, in one title, we added in support characters to help users playing alone, and in another, we added in more things for players to do in villages.

Looking at Monster Hunter Tri, instead of focusing on the monster types and characteristics, we focused more on improving the action and combat experience and taking it to new heights. The concept of monster stamina was also introduced in Monster Hunter Tri. In this way, we are able to evolve the gameplay with every title, and it helps us constantly push the boundaries of what is possible within the series.

What was the goal for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate?

The 3DS version was developed first, and one of the goals was to utilize the dual-screen properties of the hardware to the fullest. That is where the inspiration to include the Target Camera features came from.

As for the Wii U version, it was important for us to have the title work together with the 3DS version of the game, as well as take advantage of the larger screen space available. We were also able to implement internet multiplayer for the Wii U, as well as voice chat functionality, which was a feature that was widely requested by overseas users.

They were involved as co-developers for the title. Capcom provided the majority of the direction for the title through the Director and the core team staff, and a lot of the actual implementation of that vision was handled on Eighting’s side.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be released on March 19th in North America and March 22nd in Europe for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

I only ever sort of liked Monster Hunter in the first place, and most of that was thanks to the gunlance. When they cut it with Tri, I just went back to God Eater Burst. <_<

Zharkiel

GL too complex, I prefer the simplicity of the GS. I really tried getting into the GL, but just couldn’t. It’s a bitch ass concept of a weapon though, it gets kudos for that

Locklear93

I’m a very self-contradictory gamer, I’ll admit. In fighting games, I usually opt for very fast characters. In MMOs, I play both fast and slow attacking types. But in MH and similar games, I always seem to go for the biggest, slowest weapon I can find. Except Ragnarok Odyssey, where I went assassin. o_O Anyway, I get not feeling at home with the gunlance, but it was the only MH weapon I liked, and without it, I just find other games to play.

Go2hell66

its not really complex at all, its just only effective against a very small number of monsters,mainly monster with lot of armor and high defense, usually gets outclassed by other weapons against most monsters

the only weapons i’d really consider complex would be guns

MediaMindControl

My brother was a professional GL player and I haven’t known many to use it. still an awesome weapon and I don’t find it too complex. I don’t find guns to be complex either.

Fango

lol “professional” GL player.

Gregory Edcius

switch axe ftw

Haseyo

The amount of people that keep saying this makes a group large enough to prove GL has plenty of love.

Zenthos

I was a little skeptical to get ultimate at first, but because they implemented voice chat which was a must have feature for tri, I may consider buying it and a wii u once there is price drop.

http://www.facebook.com/Mewizkuit Anthony Black

Am I the only person who thinks the Hunter Horn is the coolest thing ever?

komiko12

No you’re not..

The Hunting Horn is very versatile with its buffs and allows you to heal yourself! It’s very useful to have a great user of Hunting Horn in the party.

Go2hell66

Yes…

MediaMindControl

hunting horn is awesome and by far my favorite weapon. I like to play support class in general, such as a bard but still Hunting horn is so awesome aside from being both a musical instrument and a hunting instrument because of it’s play style. The different modes to play notes and how entering the mode starts with an attack makes it very fun and more interesting to play than just spamming a combo. I find it sad that you could even thing you are the only person who thinks it is “the coolest thing ever” leading some to believe it is not that popular.

Haseyo

I love HH, I just need to get better at memorizing all the songs.

teknik1200

no, that weapon is a blast to play with. It’s nice variation to the hammer, which I typically play.

Is it march 19th yet?

J_Joestar

I’m just worried that there will be a lot of leechers who just go into hunts and think that they don’t have to do anything other than spamming buffs all day long.

MediaMindControl

The goal of MH3U is to convert the psp MH portable hunting fanbase over to the 3ds. A very smart move in seeing the popularity MH has in Japan. I have less than 20 days now to buy a blasted 3DS. I was going to get a wiiU instead, but 3DS will have pokemon XY later and has fire emblem so 3 games versus 1 game = 3ds>wiiU for 2013. hopefully we get s.m.t.IV too.

LegoPenguin

i dont care what people say im going to roll an archer, bows all the way!

konsama

Can’t wait for march 19, it’s awesome they even listened to us the occidental fans, and made a console MH, with online play and even got rid of the server region lock. (Kinda a shame they didn’t add online for 3DS, but not something i’m gonna die for).

MH is awesome and i’m glad it’s evolving so fine, third gen was a bit weird, compared to the 2nd, and seems like even the 4th one, with underwater and stuff, but still managed to get me to play thousands of hours, i expect to spend more thousands on this game. And then on MH4.

My only question right now is, will all the event stuff be on this game? I know most won’t due to brands licenses and stuff, but i’m interested if they are going to reskin some or all, some event stuff was cool, some would be so much waste to see them with a different skin. Unless they manage to do one as awesome. :P

J_Joestar

I think all of Tri’s stuff got reskinned, so they will probably do the same here.

Qyuubi786

I can’t get enough of the switch axe. It’s the best of a GS and a LS.
Ps. Id rather have the felyne comrades than the Shakalakas. (felynes are cuter)

http://www.siliconera.com/ Ishaan

I don’t know what exactly it is they’ve done to the Switch Axe in 3U (or at least, the version in the demo) but I find myself a lot more attracted to it than I was in Tri. The same goes for the Light Bowgun. Something about both those weapons just makes them feel more fun to use in 3U.

In the case of the LBG, it’s probably the Target Camera feature that helps, but I can’t place my finger on what’s different about the Switch Axe. It just… feels more responsive now.

MaskedHeroxx

Eighting thr so raw…the did a lot of my fav games

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